THE "GU CHOICE" FILES.


Photographed above, in October 1992, seated in the lobby of the Leavey Center
at the heart of the G.U. campus, are
two members of "Hoyas for Choice" offering free condoms
and abortion rights literature to all passersby.

The sign at the front of the table says:
"Grab a Free Condom! Hoyas for Choice"
The sign taped over the portrait of Mrs. Thomas Leavey says:
"FREE Condoms."

"Hoyas for Choice" is the abortion rights student organization
that in mid-1992 succeeded "GU Choice",
once the Jesuit generalate in Rome
ordered the President of Georgetown University,
Rev. Leo J. O'Donovan, S.J.,
to terminate the University's support for "GU Choice.
[See infra for the history leading up to that Vatican order] "

Why, though, would a Catholic University like G.U.
have ever decided to fund an abortion rights group?
Why, once the Vatican had ordered it to stop doing so,
would it still offer its hospitality to such a group?

The G.U. student handbook states that
"Georgetown University is committed to standards promoting speech and expression
that foster the maximum exchange of ideas and opinions."
The handbook goes on to define the few exceptions:
"unlawful activity or activity that endangers or imminently threatens to endanger
the safety of any member of the community or any of the community's physical facilities,
or any activity that disrupts or obstructs the functions of the University
or imminently threatens such disruption or obstruction.
Moreover, expression that is indecent or is grossly obscene
or grossly offensive on matters such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual preference
is inappropriate in a university community."

Understandably, not all places on campus can be available, at all times,
for any individuals or groups wanting to express themselves freely.
The handbook, however, states that "the area adjacent to the ICC [Inter-Cultural Center]
("Red Square") shall be available, without prior arrangement,
for individuals and groups during daylight hours
for the purpose of exchanging ideas."

Georgetown University may claim having a broad free-speech policy for its students and faculty;
but its policy does not, in fact, apply equally to all and sundry organizations.
For example, the student handbook also declares that
"Georgetown University does not permit single sex fraternities or sororities
to operate on its campus."

The above picture was taken the day after University officials
had ejected from "Red Square" several student members of
Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity
who had been distributing from their own table
flyers advertising a debate they had organized for that evening
between the president of the College Democrats and the president of the College Republicans
over who would make the better President of the United States,
George Bush or William Clinton.

When the Fraternity members protested that they were in the "Red Square" free-speech zone,
the head of the Student Activities Office simply said
"Some groups don't deserve the right to speak here."
So look again at the picture above, where a student abortion rights group
that is not even outside in the cold in Red Square, but is comfortably inside the Leavey Center
sitting on chairs behind a table, all provided them gratis by the University,
and allowed to turn the portrait of a University benefactress
into a prop for distributing their condoms,
and know that, while G.U. no longer "funds" an abortion rights group,
it nonetheless more than welcomes them on its campus.

The difference in treatment that G.U. gives
to abortion rights advocacy groups and single sex fraternities
proves that what defines this University
is "Political Correctness"
and not "Catholicism" or even any commitment
"to ensure the 'untrammeled expression of ideas and information'"
.

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